GSS and action research in the Hong Kong police

Group support systems (GSS), designed primarily for meeting support, are being increasingly used for learning activities. In this paper action research is applied to explore how a GSS can enrich the training of police officers. A series of five sessions conducted over the course of five months provided substantial data that informed the research methodology, the learning experience of the officers and the relative value of GSS. The use of an AR philosophy enabled the facilitation of the sessions to be tailored so as to meet the on‐going needs of the officers in a precise and focused manner, with the result that their learning effectiveness increased as the sessions proceeded. A candid evaluation of both GSS and AR, as experienced in this context, is offered, while the issue of rigor in AR is examined.